October 11, 2005

'I got sick while watching the worlds largest tug of war!'

Last Sunday was really fun. I got my first experience with Okinawan culture. Mike & I went the world's largest tug of war in downtown Naha where there were a ton of people of different ethnics, lots of rope and music and colors, and I made myself sick on french fries.

The first thing we saw when we arrived in Naha City was this:

There were two of these huge ropes on either side of a major intersection. At the front of each rope, there were huge loops:

At 3pm, they stopped traffic, the crowd surged into the street around the rope. Then they had a lot of ceremonial dances, and there were a lot of guys holding really big poles!

and the crowd pushed the huge loops together (one inside of the other). Then, the loops were secured by this huge, wooden peg:

(This thing was ENORMOUS). After the rope was put together, they had lots of martial arts dances, and the dudes holding the giant poles made them dance (Well...sort of dance. Mostly they were trying to keep them from falling on the crowd because it was really windy and raining). After the dancing was over, two small platforms were brought to the center of the celebration. Both of them held a warrior king dude, and they came from opposite directions (They were telling a story the whole time, but of course I couldn't understand a word of it.). They had a fight/martial arts dance (It wasn't really a fight, they were 15 feet apart, but they moved their swords slowly in fight positions. If they had been together, it would have looked like a real fight...in slow motion:

Then, after they were done and carried away, this huge, golden ball, that had been hanging above the center of the celebration for this whole time, exploded and showered everyone with confetti and balloons:

The side we were rooting for won =) It was really a ton of fun. Except for the french fries, but I couldn't help myself. They were the BEST fries I'd ever had! So, Mike -being the sweetest husband in the world- supported me, and my aching belly for pretty much the 2 hour celebration. Next year we are definitely going again, only this time without the fries...well, maybe just a few ;)